Our first journey

Valentine's Day dinner at Magnificent Fish and Chips Bar (Changkat BB)

2011-02-15T17:56:00.001+08:00

This is the first time we celebrated Valentines on the exact date, was a bit reluctant to try due to the bad comments from other couples saying horrendous traffic jams, long wait times, bad service and the list goes on...

Last night we had our dinner at the Magnificent Fish and Chips Bar located at Changkat Bukit Bintang which I booked a table almost 2 weeks back. Good luck finding parking by the road side. We parked at Radius International Hotel, came out to be RM6.50... pretty much the normal hotel parking rate, maybe this is slightly cheaper...

There were not many people when we arrived, though we were 20 mins ate, took me almost an hour plus from Shah Alam, with a few wrong turns... normal KL traffic flow as it was drizzling all the way.

One thing to note that there is no non-smoking section. The menu is written on a green board hung on the wall, place is quite dim though but not bad :)

Almost half the patrons are foreigners!

Waitresses were helpful with recommendations, service was quick, plates cleared from the table whenever we finish. We ordered:

1. Starters - Smoked salmon on toast (RM26)
2. Main - Grilled Salmon and Roast Black Cod (RM38 and RM48 respectively)
3. Drinks - Frozen Margarita and Cappuccino (RM20 and RM8 respectively)

The Smoked salmon on toast is something special, it was served on top of salad dressed in olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Every mouth there is a fantastic combination of balsamic vinegar, wasabi and olive oil! Recommended!

Other tables already got their Fish and Chip where as we waited another 10-15 mins for ours to arrive. Portions are fairly small... most probably we were served just a quarter or at most half of the cutlet! For that price we could actually buy the them twice the size and cook at home!

Anyway, we started with the cod, surprisingly it was pretty good! The cod is served with potato cubes and cream sauce (like cabonara). The cod is juicy and the potatoes cubes were fried with onions, combined them with the cream sauce, fantastic!

The grilled salmon was served with some kind of vegetable, one should be cucumber or zucchini, can't really make out what was the other yellow coloured one, but it tasted a bit bitter. This dish was somewhat a let down... Salmon tasted dry, most probably over grilled due to the thickness of the cutlet, pretty normal we would say. Try at your own risk :P

The frozen Margarita was strawberry flavoured, no comments, it's a Margarita. The cappuccino was good, we are coffee lovers! Forgot to ask what coffee beans were used but we liked it :)

The bill come out to be RM140 + 10% service = RM154
It was a good experience, will be back in future to try their famous battered fish and chips!

Thanks for reading.

If you have a GPS, here are the coordinates:
N 03° 08.865
E 101° 42.433

Melaka Food - must visit places

2010-03-26T18:40:00.015+08:00

It has really been awhile since i posted, felt like there is dust and cob webs everywhere... Anyway, if you happen to be in Melaka, here are my list of recommended "makan" places:

Jeta Grooves - Melaka Raya

This is by far the best (nyonya) cendol (cendol, red beans, santan, gula Melaka) \we have ever tasted! The difference is this shop uses real Gula Melaka (Melaka brown sugar) and very fresh santan (coconut milk). It comes in a very small bowl (only RM2). One is usually not enough for me, but I had to control due to my slightly higher than normal cholesterol level...

Some other food you can try here are the Mee Siam (RM3), tau kua (bean curd) and Durian Cendol (must try for durian lovers - RM3). Their Kuih (desserts) are very "nyonya", original :)

Do drop me a comment if you have any good recommendations, we will be more than happy to give it a try :)

Updates in the location:

Ming Sate Hut - Near Holiday Inn/Dataran Pahlawan
There are quite a number of satay stall/shops in Melaka, some famous ones are located in Jonker Street. Previously the one that we frequented most is located opposite a school, we are not sure about the name of the shop and which street its on, we only know how to go there :P
Anyway, my uncle recommended me this one which is easier to find, cleaner and it actually tasted better! This shop also sells good fresh fruit juices :)

Well... nothing is cheap is Melaka nowadays... but good food is priceless (to us at least) :)

Will posting more soon

Singapore trip Oct 2009

2010-03-07T11:53:00.001+08:00

If you are driving to Singapore... the most confusing thing that was noticed (at least to me) is the parking coupon system... even the locals there are unclear of what kind of coupons to use... either they have a monthly pass or they stay in a private residence...

Some info of the signboards can be found here:
HDB info web: car park signboard

There are 3 main coupons that is used, the usual ones (SGD1.00 and SGD2.00) can be bought from 7-11 or any other convenience store.

The special SGD10.00 24 hour parking coupon can only be bought at HDB branches...

Huat Kee Fish ball @ Jln Loke Yew

2009-12-22T17:35:00.004+08:00

If you like fishball noodles like Ah Koong or Tang's House of Fish ball, you might want to try Fatt Kee (Cantonese pronunciation)/Huat Kee (Hokkien pronunciation) at Jalan Loke Yew :)

I am not that good in giving directions but here goes... I only know the federal highway route, drive all the way along the highway (you will eventually reach Mid-Valley and automatically linked to Jalan Syed Putra) until you reach a roundabout. Taking a left at the roundabout will bring you to Merdeka Square, on the right will be towards Sg. Wang, Lot 10, etc. After turning to the right, keep left and follow the road pass the traffic lights, it's illegal to keep right at the traffic lights. You will pass a temple (on your left), keep right and enter Jalan Kinabalu. Keep going straight and go under the underpass entering Jalan Loke Yew. Upon seeing a flyover, keep left and make a U-turn under the flyover. Be careful here as you will need to make a left turn about 15m from the U-turn. Fatt Kee is the corner shop on the left :)

This shop used to open during day time... maybe the boss is nearing his retirement therefore only opens from 6:00pm to 2:00am now :)

There is an air conditioned room which we prefer to eat in since the shop is just beside a busy main road and next to a flyover. We managed to snapshot the menu:

Also the mobile number and opening hours:

What is special here is the soup, the sweet as it's boiled with the Sai Dou fish's bones, and not much MSG added. We usually go for the dry kuey teow (hor fun) mee and kuey teow soup. The fish balls are bouncy and sweet and yet not artificially made:

So... if you happen to pass this area and wanted to eat something light and not too solid, you can give this place a try, enjoy :)

updates:
banner at night:

Snow lotus yeast enzyme (天山雪莲)

2009-12-06T20:31:00.007+08:00

This is an enzyme drink was recommended by my wife's colleague, Ms. J. It contains most, if not all of the characteristics of any enzyme drink (the sourness, alcohol taste due to fermentation, etc). In addition to that, the Snow Lotus plant is said to contain medicinal properties and was used for centuries by medical practitioners in China and Tibet to cure diseases and enhance health. Most of the information on the net are available in Chinese (unfortunately I can't read Chinese) though.

One fine night on a rainy weekend, we followed Ms. J to Mr. A's house to have a look on how this enzyme is fermented and harvested from the so-called yeast of the Snow Lotus. We got some yeast from Mr. A and made it at home.

Some basic tools/instruments that you need for the entire process are listed below:
1. Big plastic bucket/container (for temporarily storing the enzyme)
2. Smaller plastic bucket (for mixing brown sugar with filtered water)
3. Plastic filters
4. Cloth coffee filter (for filtering diluted brown sugar)
5. Wooden/plastic spatula (for diluting brown sugar with filtered water)
6. Rice bowls
7. Glass container with plastic, screwed on cover (for fermentation)
8. A funnel (for pouring the enzyme into glass bottles)

Below are the ingredients and procedures (Mr. A already made one for us so what we did was to harvest and make a new one):
1. Pour out the fermented yeast (enzyme) into a clear plastic container by filtering the yeast and the enzyme

2. Clean the glass container

3. The ingredients should be mixed in the following proportions depending on the size of your glass container (note that there is no strict ruling that the ratios below have to be exact, you may adjust according to preference, e.g. if you accidentally added more than 3l of water, you can add more sugar and yeast to balance up again):

6 bowls of Snow Lotus yeast
2 bowls of brown sugar (Thai brown sugar cost around RM28 for 7kg, preferably use Indian brown sugar at RM21 for 7kg)
2.7-3 liters of filtered water

Mix 2 bowls of brown sugar with 3 liters of filtered water. The brown sugar is hard, the wooden spatula is for stirring and crushing the sugar while mixing:

The brown sugar solution will contain some dirt, pieces of cane, etc therefore a coffee filter is needed for extra filtering:

Upon finishing the above procedures, the last step is to close the lid. You need to close and tighten the lid once, open it then close and tighten in again. The fermentation process should take place is a cool, dry place away from direct sunlight for 4 days (e.g. you start on Sunday night 9pm, next harvesting day will be Thurday before 9pm) until the next harvest.

After every 5th harvest, you should rinse the yeast using filtered water. If you plan to stop the fermentation/harvesting for a short period (say you have holiday plans, etc), you can store the yeast in the refrigerator up to 3 months.

Things to note during the process are as per below:
1. The enzyme should not have any contact with metal
2. The bottle storing the enzyme should have a screwed on cap so that it can be allowed to breathe
3. Instruments should never have any contact with oil
4. The longer you ferment, the more sour the enzyme.

Things to note for consumers:
1. This drink can be taken before or after meals, more than once a day (Gastric patients should consume after meals)
2. Consumers that has coronary diseases and asthmatic patients should dilute the enzyme with water before drinking.
3. Not suitable for pregnant ladies but can be taken 3 months after labour
4. Enzyme should be drank 4 hours later after consuming tuber crops (such as potatoes)
5. This drink is some what "heaty" therefore drink lots of water. Coconut water helps as well.

Updates as of 23rd Aug 2010

Click for larger image :)

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Hong Kong - Day 6 (Epilogue)

2009-11-28T06:33:00.013+08:00

We asked for late checkout, but the best that the reception can do is 1:00pm... We woke up early as usual and went to Central hoping to get some famous dim sum... we were really really unfortunate that Yung Kee (famous roast goose and listed as one of the top 15 restaurants in the world) was CLOSED on that day!

A word of advice... NEVER EVER choose to go to Hong Kong/China/Macau on China National Holiday, Mid Autumn Festival, etc...

We went over to the other street where Luk Yu Tea House is located. This restaurant was also listed in some websites and tour books... at least its open :)
Kinda surprised to find out that most of the patrons are tourist... the environment is pretty cozy, air cond is cold, there was something different with how the dim sum was served... initially the waiters came out with a tray, but after like 10:30am or so... dim sum was served only if we ordered, and we had to ask for the menu... and it took quite some time for them to serve the order too... we had some commmon dim sum, and also ordered some special ones where we never tried before:
Red bean pastry, usually pastries like this at home is filled with char siew, this one is filled with red bean paste, not bad :)

Carrot cake, now this is very different from what we had before... the carrot cake is steamed in a porcelain bowl, and before eating, the waiter poured in some soy sauce! We liked it very much :)

Siew mai, steamed pork and prawn dumpling (har gao) pretty much the same :)

Should be called egg cake (gai dan gou), the difference with this and the normal cake is, this cake is made with additional ingredients, parsley and bits of egg yolk! Though the combination sounds odd, it tasted pretty good :)

The bill came to about HKD200... actually its really pricey since its located in Central Hong Kong... we will try to find some other reasonable yet delicious dim sum shops in our next visit... maybe not in the near future but we do hope to visit Hong Kong again :)

After breakfast, we took MTR back to our hotel, had shower and packed our bags ready for checkout :(
Since we had some time in our hands and not wanting to get sweaty and stuff, we placed our larger luggage with the concierge and only limit ourselves to walk around the nearby shopping complex. We explored all the levels and found an interesting one selling miniature clay animal figures, they were really cute... especially the bunnies! Too bad we were not allowed to snap photos :(

We had lunch also in the complex, Ajisen Ramen! The first time I had this was during my employment in China a few years back, one of the best ramen I had, and it was during winter, simply amazing :)
The soup is pork based and very sweet, the needles we hand made that time :)
When I got to know that this restaurant is finally opened in Malaysia, I was thrilled! I had lunch in the 1 Utama branch and was extremely (again... extremely, extremely) disappointed... maybe because it's halal, no offense... but it was horrible, I don't even want waste time bringing my wife to try it...
The Singapore Taka branch we had was a little better but the Hong Kong one brings back the good old memories. My wife liked it very much :)
Below is the Char Siew Ramen, apologies as we only realized that we have not taken the photo after started to eat :P

We also tried the Kimchi fried rice, good but not as good as the ramen :)

After lunch we went for dessert, we pass this small shop every time we go out and return to the hotel :)

The skin is not crispy enough, a bit on the plain side and a bit thick... but the inside is a nice mixture of strawberries, cream, custard, chocolate ice-cream and chocolate sauce... costs HKD38 :)

We took an early cab to the Kowloon Airport Express station. The taxi driver was not very honest as we think he over charged us... there will be a fixed charge of HKD 5 or 10 (sorry, really forgot...) from the hotel to the Airport express station and vice versa. The cab driver will press a button and the meter will bump up the fare by a fixed amount... in our case, my wife noticed that the guy pressed the button twice and when we were about to leave, he verbally added another HKD10 to the fare displayed on the meter! We didn't suspect anything until we recalled the fare that we paid the first day we arrived in Hong Kong... so fellow tourist/travelers, do take note on this :)
Alternatively, maybe you can try out their complimentary shuttle bus service for Airport Express Pass holders, maybe I'll try this one out in my next visit :)

Remember the Airport Express Travel Pass what we bought when we arrived? You can return it at the MTR counter at the airport and get back all the cash that you loaded plus a HKD50 deposit, well worth the price, huh? :)
There was nothing much to do at the airport except for waiting... the flight was delayed... typical AirAsia schedule I reckon... tiring day... I can't seem to find the food court area my dad mentioned... lucky we bought some bread at the bakery before leaving the shopping complex... and we shared a chicken rice and Milo on board the plane :)

Oh... on the plane, there was this old lady from Indonesia (kind of guessed from the accent) was coughing and sneezing... what's worse is she sat beside me and we were in the first row! I asked the stewardesses for a mask either for the lady or for us but they said they've ran out... I then asked them to check whether the lady was in the correct seat as she was seated in another row separated from her relatives...
Finally she shifted to the row on my right, the couple seated there was already wearing masks then complained to the stewardesses (of course unable to get masks)... the couple offered the lady a mask but you know what's the shocking part? The lady said, "No, I don't want your mask, I have my own!" and proceeded to wear it... I was like what the f***... you had a mask and you were sick and on a confined area and you didn't want to wear a mask until asked by so many people including the stewardesses! Hello... it's H1N1 season! Talk about inconsideration... this is really unacceptable... I was so furious that time that i couldn't sleep!
Anyway, the couple couldn't stand it and went to the back row after that... man... we all paid extra for the hot seats... she was there just because she was a senior citizen and this is how some people show their appreciation...

That's all for our Hong Kong trip, it has been an amazing experience, both of us loved the food and the wished that we had spent another few more days there! Usually my wife will get happy and all whenever we're heading back home, this time she was slightly moody and told me, "I don't care, we're coming back here again next time!" So most probably we will plan another trip there some other season, maybe during summer when there's less rain and more shopping :)
Also we might also try staying in Tsim Sha Shui area in Marco Polo Prince as recommended by my dad... it's about HKD100-200 per night more than our current hotel. It's nearer to the bustling Nathan Road and saves more traveling time, we'll see how it goes next time :)

Will be back with more photos and food in our next destination somewhere in December, adios and thanks for reading :)

Hong Kong - Day 5 (Macau)

2009-10-09T17:59:00.262+08:00

We kind of regretted this short trip to Macau as it was too short and Macau is huge but nevertheless, there's still something to write about :)

We woke up later than scheduled and went for the porridge at the nearby market again. We just could not resist and had to return and have it. Also tried the cheong fun (char siew and shrimp) this time, not that bad just that the flour was a bit thick. There is something special about the soy sauce in Hong Kong... not too salty and had this fragrant slightly sweet taste :)

After breakfast, we took MTR to Tsim Sha Tsui and had a short walk to the China Ferry Terminal located behind the Marco Polo/Marco Polo Prince Hotel/The Gateway/Harbour City stretch. There was also an Esprit Factory Outlet nearby :)
This building is kind of confusing at first, the ticketing counters and departure was located on the 2nd floor. Upon reaching level 2, there were a lot of ferry's going to Macau and a lot of other places in China! We looked for First Ferry Macau counter and bought a return ticket. The ferry ride was pretty long... around 1 hour 15 mins including waiting time... We would like to recommend that you bring along some motion sickness pill in case of sea sickness :)
Upon reaching, you will be able to see a very impressive museum and Sands Macau:

Now... word of advice: Macau is not that tourist friendly as compared to Hong Kong... the place is huge and people there sort of gives you the feeling that you are some kind of "water-fish"... i.e. tourist = $$$... not meant as an insult to anyone, just personal experience with cabs especially...
After arriving at the Macau Ferry Terminal, there was tourist center on the right as you walk towards the exit/entrance of the building. You can grab some maps, though they are not that useful, at least there is something to refer to :)
Getting to Senado Square was not pleasant. There is a bus/taxi stand just outside the Ferry Terminal. The more economical way to travel without being conned is by bus, but remember to bring lots of small change, else you will end up like us taking a very expensive taxi ride to Senado Square...
It was China National... what you can see is only people... people and more people...

OK, I am going to quit complaining for the time being and start to enjoy the trip... Macau's building architectures are very unique, being here is like being in a more modern Malacca :)

We had our first prok chop bun from an unknown shop... when we say pork chop bun we really mean it. It's just a piece of fried pork chop in between bread which tasted a bit like French loaf... be careful of the bones when you feast :)

I don't know why but I have problems reading the maps... they are inaccurate and the scales are pretty off... Anyway, it took us quite some time find out where the Ruins of St Paul were, but we made it... along the way to the ruins, there are a lot of shops selling local Macau delicacies like almond cookies, dried BBQ meat, candies, etc. Now, the Ruins:

We took quite a lot of photos here :)
After all the walking and hot sun... felt kinda dizzy... maybe a little sun burnt too... we saw this crowd of people queuing up for some Taiwanese ice dessert, it was really hot so some ice was irresistible :)

The outlook was appealing just that it was not as tasty as we expected... we ordered the Mango flavoured one, it tasted like... iced Mango syrup... oh well... at least it cold :)

We headed back to the main road and wanted to go to Coloane Island to look for lunch. There was this famous Portuguese Restaurant called Fernando's featured in almost all the Macau tour books and a lot of websites. We even over heard some of the foreigners asking for directions to this island when we arrived at the Ferry Terminal earlier :)
According to Google map, Praia de Hac Sa (aka Black sand beach) was not that far:

We decided to wait for a bus heading towards that direction... after half and hour... still no buses... hungry and slightly frustrated due to the hot weather, we took a cab instead... We passed by the Macau tower while going across the bridge... seems like we were on the right direction:

The taxi ride was was like... man! almost 40 mins! Plus it costs us slightly more than MOP100! We will get to the part on why the price and the duration later...
Now, the restaurant seems pretty normal at first glance, but inside is like... wow... another place with difference ambiance and feeling:

The patrons consist mostly of foreigners... The menu is just Portuguese and Chinese... from my research... the place should be famous for grilled food so we ordered a grilled quarter chicken and a grilled fish. Each customer is given a big bun with butter, it tasted like French loaf (I personally like French Loaf) but the skin was a bit hard:

Frankly, we think that the food was not that great... maybe we did not order correctly because the grilled chicken was like... Nando's without the Peri Peri sauce... the fish was just grilled with salt... not to say the food tasted bad but it was... normal... maybe we set our expectations too high after reading all those reviews on the net :)
Nevertheless, the environment was great, quiet with some soft music, you can feel some cooling sea breeze, it would be a good place for a gathering with some friends, some wine would go great! :)
My wife finished earlier and took some photos of the place :)

The place is really huge as you can see that there are a lot of different settings for different occasions, we reckon that this would be a really happening place at night :)

The meal costs us slightly less than MOP200 as we shared a Coke. We planned to take a bus back to town and since its not here yet, we took a quick stroll to the famous Hac Sa Beach :)

And yeah... the sand is sort of black :)

As promised earlier on the reason for the expensive and long taxi ride... we took a bus back (23A if we remembered correctly) and realized that the taxi actually took us for almost a round (maybe half) island trip! The bus took a shorter route back, passing by Coloane town where the famous Lord Stow's Portuguese Egg Tart Bakery is located.

We have no idea where the place is exactly even with the help of Google Map... we coincidentally saw the shop when the bus passed by a roundabout. We actually overshot and had to walk back. To the left of the shop is (i think...) Coloane Village, unfortunately we did not have the time to venture further...
We forgot to take a photo of the egg tart as we were rushing to get another bus... the pastry is crispy and the filling is smooth unlike those that we had back in Malaysia... it's a little bit on the sweet side (even for a sweet tooth like myself), but overall it's better than the one we had in Senado's Square :)

We initially planned to go to the famous Venetian Hotel, we did not have time and also wanted to find the famous Ruo Do Cunha street for dinner... we seriously walked a lot and the maps... crap... the scale is something they should improve on... totally different from the maps we had in Hong Kong... anyway, here are some photos to took on the way back... very nice architecture :)
Macau is filled with Hotels and Casinos, nothing else...

Above is the Venetian... side view i think

We took another bus back to the Ferry Terminal. It was getting dark and along the way, some of the hotel lights were on, it was a beautiful sight :) Unfortunately the bus was pretty packed and we had no chance to bring out our camera to snap photos :(
It was a tiring and hot day so we took the earlier ferry back to Hong Kong. We spent some time at the Esprit Outlet just next to the Ferry Terminal. We think that the selection here is a lot newer compared to those in Tung Chung :)

We had dinner in one of the shops in Tsim Sha Tsui, quality was acceptable. We shared seafood hor fun and a bowl of wan ton:

The seafood hor fun only had salt taste... it did not have that wok taste we expected... yup, acceptable :)
The wan ton was quite fresh but we preferred the one we had in the morning, it had more prawns :)

After dinner we strolled around Tsim She Tsui, enjoying the night life and view. Initially we hesitated going to Arena of Stars as we were really drained... but, it's our last night in Hong Kong, so... what the heck, we decided to go ahead and man, we didn't regret that decision :)
Too bad we were not good in night photography... even with a tripod, most of the photos are blurred due to the strong wind...

The Peninsular Hotel, very grand :)

Well, thanks for viewing, it has been a long day, back to our hotel to rest... it's not pleasant having the thought that we will be leaving the next day though...

Hong Kong - Day 4 (Lantau/Tung Chung)

2009-10-09T12:43:00.027+08:00

Bright as sunny day! We thought that we should have chosen today to go to Disneyland instead of yesterday... but came to think of it... its Hong Kong/China National Day today... most probably the park will be flooded by tourist... so today is a good day to stay away from the city, Lantau (Tai yu san) here we come :)

Recalled my dad saying that there were a lot of food shops in Tsim Sha Tsui so we headed there for breakfast. We were there around 10:00am... seems pretty quite and nit many shops were opened yet... we wondered around behind the Giordano Concept store and found shop selling Roast Pork (char siew). We forgot to take a photo of the shop but it has a light greenish signboard :)
We ordered Roast pork and dumpling noodles (char siew wanton mein) and a roast pork rice (char siew fan). The portion was pretty big but we somehow managed to finish all up... maybe we walked a lot...
OK... the noodles came first, the wanton was filled with fresh juicy prawns, the noodles we springy and crunchy. The char siew had this mild pork taste... maybe its immersed into the soup therefore diluted the sauce covering the char siew, overall, good dish :)

Then came the char siew rice... seriously a lot of rice but there was also a handsome amount of char siew to go with. This dish tasted a lot better. The char siew's sauce and oil blends nicely with the rice, the meat was lean and surprisingly juicy! We finished the rice :)

You will need to head back the same route as per Disneyland but instead of interchanging at Sunny Bay, you go all the way to the last MTR station at Tung Chung. There are actually 2 ways to get to the Giant Buddha and the Po Lin Monastry. One is by bus, another is via the new Ngong Ping 360 cable car. Upon reaching Tung Chung, we proceeded towards the bus terminal looking for bus 23. You will notice a lot of bus services along the way, some requires you to buy ticket, etc... we did not bother as the people seemed like touts... we walked all the way to the end of the terminal where bus 23 is located. Since it was a public holiday, the fare was HKD27.50 instead of the normal HKD17, we used our Airport express passes. The bus route is a series of winding roads, similar to that of Cameron Highlands. The ride will take slightly more than 30 mins. Along the way, we got a glimpse of the cable car route, most probably the ride will be exciting as the cables are hung from hill to hill, very high up indeed :)
Down the hill, there's a new tourist village called Ngong Ping village. At the other end of the village should be the cable car terminal coming from Tung Chung.

Looking up the hill, sitting there was the Giant Buddha... Magnificent :)

On the right will be a short climb to the Giant Buddha, on the left is the Po Lin Monastry. Before going up the steps, there will be counters selling coupons for HKD60 whereby you get to visit a small museum underneath the Buddha plus a vegetarian meal at the monastry.

Of course we walked all the way up, great view of the monastry from the top :)

There were some souvenier stalls underneath the Buddha. We bought some stuff for our family members. It was very sunny that day and most of my photos are overexposed...

It was very hot so we did not spent much time there. On the way back to the bus terminal, my wife saw some shops selling toufu fah, so we gave it a try. It was not as smooth as the one we had in Mongkok, maybe because its processed via the traditional method using a stone grinder as we saw one there. Its pretty similar to the ones we have back home. You can take the same bus back, same price, same duration or via cable car. We slept all the way back to Tung Chung :)

Now... for some shopping! Tung Chung Citygate Outlet is the largest consolidated factory outlet/warehouse in Hong Kong. It holds brands from Joy and Peace, Nike, Adidas/Reebok, A/X, Timberland, Esprit and luxury brands like Burberry, Polo Ralph Lauren, Coach, Bally on the upper levels. The designs and fashions are a bit off season, some are from previous years. But if you don't mind the fashion, most probably you'll be spending quite a lot (of time and $$$) here :)
Can you imagine an original Polo T for only HKD420?!

We had a quick lunch at McDs, it was a public holiday so, every shop has a long queue... We shared a Shogun burger, interestingly the burger came with pork patty and an egg, similar to Chicken McMuffin with egg :)

We did not buy anything there as there were too many people... the fitting rooms was seriously packed! Some designs was kind of old... I am sort of a Timberland guy, the plain coloured long sleeve shirts are a bargain... unfortunately my wive bought me almost every colour available back home, so we skipped that... Another surprising thing is that we saw was Timberland actually sells women apparel! And Joy and Peace sells men leather shoes :)

We headed back to Mongkok for dinner since today is the only day we actually had a bit of spare time to roam around the vicinity of our hotel. This is also the first day where I did not carry anything, that includes my camera... dang! Why? Because we had waxed meat claypot rice (lap mei pou chai fan) for dinner. I should have taken photos of this meal as it was really delicious! I didn't expect to be able to eat this dish as its usually served during winter period! The rice was cooked in a claypot with Chinese sausages (lap cheong and yun cheong) and some duck meat if not mistaken. We were given this say sauce to pour into the claypot, you can hear the rice sizzling with the sauce creating a mouth-watering aroma! I don't quite fancy yun cheong but this one was great :)
It was a bit oily but we washed it down with a glass of iced lemon tea (dong ling cha)

Since it was early, we went back to the hotel's shopping mall. My wife got a pair of very nice high heels from Joy and Peace with a National day discount of 15% which came out to be around HKD700, and I got a Nike back pack, with 10% discount as well, around HKD450 :)

Well... another day gone... 2 more days to go... how time flies :(

Hong Kong - Day 3 (Disneyland)

2009-10-08T16:00:00.010+08:00

We woke up at 6:30am just to take peek through the hotel window and found this... After 2 days of continuous rain, finally we can see blue skies and the SUN!

The day started with a bowl of hot smooth porridge at Mui Kee Congee located in the Fa Yuen St market building near our hotel. I got to know about this place from this blog. Excellent porridge! Do notice the misleading floor number... its stated 3 but in Chinese, it is level 4...

We ordered a Fish Belly porridge (Wan yu lam chuk, I have no idea what type of fish wan yu is though...) and a bowl of fish skin. The fish skin is a cold dish, its eaten with some ginger, spring onions and some soy sauce.

The porridge is really smooth and sweet! The porridge based tasted as if it was cooked with charcoal (my mum used to bowl soup with charcoal, food cooked with charcoal has this special unforgettable fragrant taste). The fish was very fresh and it came with a handsome amount too.

There was a dimsum stall at the back, so we went to try out as well. The lotus leaf rice (hor yip fan) was nice, the siew mai was a bit salty.

We went around the market and had a few snapshots here and there :)

The market was quite clean and didn't smell that bad unlike the market we have back home. The fruits, vegetables and meat as fresh, especially the saefood, most of it are still alive and swimming!

After the hearty breakfast, we were on our way to Disneyland :)
At the Sunny Bay interchange, Disney has their own train with Mickey windows :)

There was still a long walk before reaching the ticketing counter. We passed by a maze on our left, fountain ahead, turn right and we were at the ticketing counter. It was Halloween so there were additional decos and figures.

There are basically 3 lands - Tomorrowland, Adventureland and Fantasyland. Since it was Halloween, there were haunted houses in all the 3 parks :)
Fantasyland:

Adventureland:

It was really scary because the figures in the haunted houses were actually Disney staffs in costumes! Space Mountain in Tomorrowland is a fun indoor roller-coaster ride :)
The people there were really helpful, if you go as a couple, they offered to take your photos using your camera free of charge :)
We also went for the Lion King show, also indoor. It was really hot outside... we needed to cool down with some aircond :)

Fortunately we were able to catch the Disney on Parade at 4:00pm because it started raining again after 5:00pm... we missed the Live Highschool Musical show and the Halloween Parade... what a waste :(

We spent quite a lot of time in the shops looking for souveniers as it was raining heavily outside...
There were quite a variety of food there. Averagely priced at HKD50... at that price, we opted for Western. Portion was fairly big, quality not that bad considering that its still a food court :)
Grilled chicken and Fish and Chips:

The rain stopped just on time for the 8:00pm closing fireworks... spectacular!

We actually missed quite a number of events due to the rain and very fortunate that we did not get sick :)
We had some curry fishballs on the way back to our hotel, its between HKD6-8 depending on the shop. They are pretty elastic, not too bad :)

Hong Kong - Day 2 (Hong Kong Island)

2009-10-07T16:36:00.000+08:00

Our initial plan was to go to Disneyland but since it is still raining, we shifted the Hong Kong island tour to today. We started off with Mido Cafe located on Temple St., one of those coffee shops (a.k.a. char chan teng) much talked about in Hong Kong travel books and some blogs. We knew why when we reached there... all of the customers don't speak Cantonese and most of them carry cameras and backpacks!
This place quite easy to find, just take exit C of Yau Ma Tei MTR station and head towards Temple St., it is the last shop on your right. I have marked this place down on my google map. The shop is like those typical char chan teng you see on any Hong Kong movies/series. There's no English Menu therefore advisable to have someone who can read Chinese with you :)

We started off with a cheese and ham sandwich (for thui chee see san mun zhi), pineapple bun with butter (nai yau bo lo pao) and a cup of milk tea (nai cha), remember to add your own sugar :)
The difference between the milk tea back home is that the tea in Hong Kong is much more fragrant. Also, they have set menus, the cheese and ham sandwich came with the milk tea.

The pineapple bun is delicious as the taste has a combination of slightly salted melted butter with the sweetness of the pineapple pastry on the bun, best eaten hot :)

Then we continued to order ham and fried eggs (for thui zhin dan). This dish came with 2 eggs, 3 pieces of ham, few sticks of carrots and potato and toast bread with butter. Funny thing is the eggs tasted a bit different from those we had back home... my wife is fussy when it comes to raw egg yolk but this time she happily slurps away :)

After breakfast, we took a stroll along the main road (Nathan Road) back to the MTR station, it was still raining... we headed to the famous Wong Tai Sin Temple located at Wong Tai Sin MTR Station. The rain got heavier but there were still a lot of people there. We took a snapped a few photos of the exterior, photography was not allowed in the praying quarters.

There are a lot of interesting shops in the MTR stations. The one below sells a variety of bottled herbal teas (liong shui)

Next on our list was Tao Yuen Teow Chew Fishball Noodles recommended by my uncle, located near the Central (Chung Wan) MTR. The people and shops here are very different from Kowloon. People here are well dressed and shops are like Giordano Concept Store, Coach, Episode, Marks and Spencer Flagship store, etc...

In between buildings are concrete staircases and along the staircase are small stalls selling food, fruits, meat, and what not...

It was around lunch time, the noodle shop cannot be missed due to its striking red and yellow signboard and long queue. From the menu, seems like they are more famous for beef noodles... both of us don't take beef so we ordered 2 bowls of fishball noodles (yu dan hor). Despite the number of customers, service was pretty quick. You can add more garlic and some dried chilli paste depending on taste :)
Soup is good, plain yet sweet. Fishball and fishcakes are springy, sweet and juicy. A bowl costs between HKD20-30, pretty average price for a meal in Central Hong Kong :)

We walked around some shops, Marks and Spencer and The Landmark before heading off for tea somewhere near Wan Chai MTR station.

Honolulu Cafe was one of the shops featured in 988 FM. We ordered 2 egg tarts (dan tat), a porkchop bun (chu par pao), pineapple bun and an iced milk tea. Another thing to note is, you have to specify nai yau po lo pao else the order will come only as the pineapple bun. We prefer the pineapple bun we had at Mido's earlier in the day. The egg tart was fresh from the oven, the pastry had butter fragrance yet not too strong, the egg again did not have that egg smell and it was really smooth and it melted in our mouths instantly! We wanted to try the porkchop bun so that we can compare with the ones we will be having in Macau few days later.

We headed back to the MTR station and dropped by the snack shop selling chicken egg cakes (kai dan zai) recommended by my uncle. Its located next to McDs. You can actually smell the aroma from when coming up from the MTR station and it's made upon ordering. It tasted like pancake, crispy on the outside, soft on the inside, inside was half empty though :)

We are full again, so time to continue our walk. We headed back to IFC Mall at Central as my wife wanted to Visit Zara.

Spent a few hours there and we continued our journey to The Peak and Madam Tussauds.

From IFC Mall, head towards Pier 6 and take bus 15C to the Lower Peak Tram Terminus which will only cost a few HKDs. There is a pedestrian walkway all the way from IFC Mall to the piers. Lots of sightseeing along the way :)

You will be able to see The Peak Counter at the entrance. If this is your first visit, we would recommend you to get the 3-in-1 Combo Package from a smaller counter on the left where the Jackie Chan figure is standing. For HKD190, you will get a return ride via the Tram, entrance to the Wax Museum and go up to the Sky Terrace for night view of Hong Kong City.

Upon reaching the top, there are a lot of souvenier shops along the way before you get to the Wax Museum.

There are really a lot of figures of celebrities, big shots, and famous people! Some are exceptional real like Leo Ku, Andy Lau and Beckham to name a few! Here are some snapshots for your viewing pleasure :)

After the photo taking session, we proceeded to the Sky Terrace. You will need to go through a series of escalators but its worth the walk when you get to see the night view. It was really windy outside, felt like Genting Highlands but far stronger wind. My wife held on to the railings really tight, afraid that she might be blown away. Awesome view, huh? :)

There are a lot of Western restaurants there but we already have one in mind located somewhere near Lan Kwai Fong. We went back all the way down and catch the same 15C bus back but instead asked the driver to drop us somewhere near the Central MTR (just outside The Landmark, opposite of an LV outlet) instead of all the way back to the pier. The restaurant was just a stones throw away, its called Jimmy's Kitchen. It has been written in almost all the Hong Kong travel guidebooks we have read. So we gave it a go :)
Its located inside the South China Building:

It did not seem that posh from the photos on the website... but when we went in, it was surprisingly the opposite... I was thinking like... wow... it's definitely going bust our budget!

We ordered a Lamb Rack, a Chicken Kiev and a glass of 2007 Shiraz. It was a really long wait though... My wife's lamb came first, it was grilled to a perfect medium rare. Had a sip of wine, popped the meat into my mouth and the juice oozes out and blends with the after taste of the wine! Absolutely fantastic!

Then came my chicken... it wasn't what I had expected... I was pretty hungry that time so I hoped for a larger portion... The chicken was only the size of a KFC thigh!

Oh well... let's get things started... when I cut the chicken, there was this garlic buttered gravy flowing out of the chicken. Mixing a piece of chicken with mash potatoes and the gravy proved to be a very good match!

My wive being a small eater pass one of the ribs to me, which made me pretty stuffed after that... The dinner was pretty damaging... it came out to be about HKD650! Well, we have always seen in the movies how the actors and actresses have fine-dining in western restaurants in Hong Kong, its worth the experience :)

We have enough energy left to take a short walk to Lan Kwai Fong as directly by the waiter. Its just located 2 roads back from the restaurant. This place is filled with Westerners and was quite happening even though its only Tuesday!

How time flies as it was already 10:30pm... we headed back to the MTR and took the train back to Mongkok.
The nearest MTR to the hotel we were staying in was Mongkok East. But in order to get there, there was a need to have a few interchanges, so we usually just take the Red Line to the Mongkok station and talk a walk back via the very long overhead pedestrian walkway. On our way back, we saw some shops selling desserts, so we went to try them out. We ordered a toufu dessert (tau fu fah), an almond one (hang yan wu) and a plate of fried toufu (zhin tau fu). We forgot the take photos of the shop (from the menu and the name of the shop, seems like they are focused on soy beans and some other bean type food) and the toufu dessert, crap... The toufu dessert was extremely smooth until it was like drinking water! The fried toufu with fish cake tasted as if it was smelly toufu, but we can't confirm... it tasted pretty OK after adding some sauce and chilli :)

OK... it was getting pretty late... we headed back to the hotel and had a good night's sleep after a hot shower :)
Today was the most productive day I must say as we covered a lot of places and all the food that we had were fabulous!

Hong Kong - Day 1 (Arrival)

2009-10-05T16:24:00.000+08:00

Just a word of advice... maximizing the traveling period can be beneficial but it is also extremely exhaustive as you might not get enough sleep for the first and last day... We booked the earliest possible flight to Hong Kong (7:00am) and the latest possible flight back (9:05pm) to KL... extremely tiring as we have to reach the airport by 5:00am, which means waking up at around 3:00am!

My basic checklist will be passport, air ticket, hotel reservation confirmation, camera, some medication (e.g. Panadol, indigestion pills (po chai yun)) and $$$ :)

We reached the LCCT fairly early, the counter was already opened for check-in. We had breakfast at the Theobroma Chocolate Lounge as it posters look pretty appealing. We ordered a breakfast set (comes with coffee), a sausage croissant and a hot chocolate.

Either it was really early or the food there is not up to standard for around RM30+... the omelette was tasteless, the french loaf really hard, the sausage was cold and salty... fortunately the chocolate drink was good... hot, strong and smooth :)

After the meal, we headed to the departure hall, most of the shops were closed... cut the long story short... we boarded the plane, i really do recommend that you buy the Hotseats and take the 1st row. They have at least 2-3x more leg room compared to the seats behind :)

Played with the camera a little bit and had some rest...

4 hours later... We are in HONG KONG!

I seriously recommend getting the Airport Express Travel Pass before leaving the airport! It costs HKD300 (HKD50 refundable upon surrendering at the same Airport counter before leaving Hong Kong), includes 2 single journey on the Airport Express Line (Airport <->; Tsing Yi <-> Kowloon <-> Hong Kong, max 24 mins from Airport to Hong Kong station) and 3 days unlimited MTR rides in all Lines :)
You can reload the card at any MTR stations. We loaded it with HKD100 as we were there for 6 days and occasionally travel on buses.
Try to avoid taxis as much as possible (unless you have a lot of luggage) as they are very expensive! The meter starts at HKD18 (for the first 2-3km) and adds HKD1.50 every 200m or every 1 min waiting time.
The unlimited MTR rides is a real super saver because a one-way ride from Mongkok to Central already cost us HKD9.50/pax...

It was raining slightly, below are some shots taken during our ride in the Airport Express:

We took a cab to The Royal Plaza Hotel located at Grand Century Place shopping centre at Mongkok, cost us slightly less than HKD50 (inclusive HKD5 for additional baggage). The lobby was pretty packed.

The reception told us that our room will not be ready until 2pm, so we left our luggage with the concierge and head off to the shopping complex next to the hotel. It was raining so it was inconvenient to go out into the streets.

Food court was really packed, most customers were students... Now... in Hong Kong, everything is in Traditional Chinese... some do not even have English translation! My wife went to look for a table while I, like what any other foreigner would do... I strolled around, find a nice yummy looking picture and told the cashier, "I want that one" :)
The payment system is efficient... you order, pay, get a number and wait for your number to be called :)
We ordered Century Egg and Lean Pork Porridge (Pei Dan Sau Yuk Chuk) and Pork Chop Noodles (Chu Par Mein), not exactly what I expected... maybe food court food quality is similar anywhere in the world...

We head back to the hotel after lunch and finally we get our room :)
Another thing to note, i was kind of taken back when the reception told me that they will charge us additional HKD500/night for some facilities, but if we do not use them, they will be refunded upon checkout. I found out that the charge was for some movies and porn. Of course, you will need to conform payment, else you will not be simply charged :)
The room's pretty good, actually quite spacious considering that fact that we were in Hong Kong!

We had some rest then head out for our first dinner in Hong Kong. Yue Kee Roast Goose in Sham Tseng was first on the list! This place is pretty out of town and there are a few blogs out there that has good description on the location. We used the route recommended by ourfriend. First we took a train to Tsuen Wan station and took a cab there as we were not familiar with the place and the bus stop was really packed due to the rain. The taxi ride was quite costly, around HKD70-80 if i recalled correctly. Yue Kee is located at a small building behind Chang Kee (also Roast Duck/Goose), not very accessible but you will be able to see their restaurant from the main road.

We ordered 1/4 roast goose, a plate of century eggs and a plate of fried vegetable (choy sum). As per my dad's advice, remember to order "Lai Pai" for all the dishes, else you will get everything by the number of head count which is a very large portion also hefty price!

Actually the above is quite a lot for 2 but we managed eventually. The goose's skin is crispy and fragrant, slightly fat but good. This is the first time we tasted goose, is it supposed to have a kind of mutton-like after taste? It went well with the rice as we thought it was slightly salty. The vege's very fresh and crunchy, the century eggs are good, the style is different from what I had before, there is a plate of sugar for you to dip in and eat together with the ginger :)
The bill came out to be slightly above HKD100. After we paid the bill, we got a bowl of hot red bean dessert each for free.

We followed our friend's advice, instead of taking a cab back to the the MTR station, we took a bus. You can take either bus 234A/234B, it will take you back to the Tsuen Wan Station (it only costs HKD4.80/pax!). This is where the reloaded Airport Express card came in handy, it's like Touch N Go/Autopass.

Since it was still raining, we just shopped around the shopping complex earlier. Despite all the rain, the first shopping was a pretty good deal. I am not sure about other places but Tough jeans in Malaysia costs a bomb! The first jeans that we bought was slightly less than RM500 per pair! We went through the latest designs, got ourselves a pair of jeans each, 7 off-season/discounted T-shirts and a hooded sweater for my wife... all that for only HKD3000, not bad... not bad at all :)

It was already 10:30pm... we headed back to our room, took a shower and slept like a log...
The TV has this very convenient system whereby you can check what's being charged to your room :)

Costing and planning

2009-10-05T08:06:00.000+08:00

This 6D5N trip cost us about RM7.3k, inclusive some light shopping, day trip to Macau via Ferry, The Peak/Wax Museum and Disneyland. Initially we budgeted RM3k per pax, there were some occasions where by the underestimated the cost a little bit...

Below is the costing breakdown:

AirAsia Air return tickets - RM625/pax (HKG-KUL additional baggage allowance (20kg), Hotseats both ways))
The Royal Plaza Hotel at Mongkok - HKD3465 (5 nights, HKD630/night, 10% tax/night)
The Peak + Sky terrace + Madam Tussauds - HKD190/pax
Macau First Ferry return - HKD638 (HKD144 to Macau, HKD175 back to Kowloon/pax)
Disneyland - HKD350/pax
Airport Express Travel Pass - HKD400/pax (HKD300/pax + HKD100/pax reload)
Other transportation - HKD100/pax (under estimate)
Food - HKD900/pax (HKD150/pax/day)

Blog will start tomorrow

2009-10-04T22:18:00.000+08:00

We will start blogging tomorrow... need to sort out photos first :)

Basically we will be writing on our first trip to Hong Kong/Macau... sort of like a Hong Kong Travel Guide because we did not spent much time in Macau :)
Hopefully our experience will be helpful to those who are planning to go to there